That was the running theme among five students who spoke to about 100 of their classmates from Peabody High School during the school’s version of the national student walkout Wednesday morning to call for more to be done in the wake of the school shooting in Florida on Feb. 14 that left 17 dead.

Students were encouraged to walk out of class for 17 minutes to call for stricter gun control and school safety.

Trenton Police Department cars guarded each entrance to the parking lot of the school and a couple more were with the gathering in front of the school’s main entrance as five students talked about how guns are part of the problem in this issue, but they’re not the only one.

“No one should have to go to school or their jobs and not feel safe,” said Autumn Miller during the protest. “I think this is a situation where people felt afraid and alone, and I think we need to come together and be there more for each other.”

Other sentiments were shared by others including Tabitha June, Scyon Keneer, Jordan Haynes and Chloe Shelton, who organized the effort.

“I posted on social media asking for anyone who would be willing to speak during this after I e-mailed our administration asking if we could do this,” Shelton said. “I’d been told there was some interest in us doing something.

“I’m glad our administration let us do this – Mr. (Rickey) Hooker and Mr. (Tim) Haney – were good enough to let us do it and supported us in it.”

Scyon Keneer was one of the speakers, and she wanted to be a part of it to make sure people knew mourning the losses and the fact shootings happen on school campuses shouldn’t be normal in the United States.

“You hear about these situations and how people die and they happen,” Keneer said. “It shouldn’t be a matter of ‘when’ this will happen here because it seems like it’s happening everywhere, but I don’t see how anyone can forget about when these things happen or just shrug it off after a few days.”

Jordan Haynes was born two weeks after the shooting at Columbine (Colo.) High School on Apr. 20, 1999. She had prepared statement that she said was easy to write while at a youth conference over the weekend.

“This is what we’ve known all our lives, and we need to get back to where we feel angry about it for more than a few days,” Haynes said. “It’s been a month since the shooting at Parkland (Fla.), and that’s already kind of dropped out of everybody’s attention.”

And Shelton said that’s the main purpose behind their protest.

“Just being nicer to each other and doing what we can to make sure this doesn’t happen here – what’s what we need to do,” Shelton said.

Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com or at 731-425-9751. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.